The "A Visit With Barbara In Sint Maarten" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Talking with my wife about the trip we had planned for the beginning of June.  It was to be a few weeks on the island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten, but the island is now closed to flights from the USA as well as other parts of the world.  Our flight has not officially been cancelled, but with no place to land, I can't imagine it not being canceled.  

Aerial photograph showing the island known as
St. Martin/Sint Maarten

We will surely miss our beach visits, culinary visits and old friends visits if we can't make the trip.  We have now begun to check our calendar to see what we can do, but there is little that can be done until the pandemic we are in the midst up eases its grip on the world.  Perhaps this fall, or maybe we will have to wait until this time next year before we can get in our beach time.  One friend we will surely miss is Barbara Cannegieter whom we have gotten to know over the past two decades of travel to her home in Sint Maarten.  We got to know her while I was searching for a fellow known as her gardener.  Found out that her gardener, Dee, was really her husband who happened to own a liquor store on Front Street in Philipsburg, the capitol city of Sint Maarten.  They had a beautiful garden at their home.  When we final had a chance to visit with them, she revealed that she grew up less than 90 miles from our home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  She was a native of Williamsport, PA and happened to meet her husband while visiting the island of Sint Maarten after high school.  After a few visits to the island, she got married and never returned to the states.  Our yearly, and sometimes bi-yearly, visits to her home high above the city of Philipsburg are always the highlight of our trip to the island.  So, when I began to search one of her Facebook pages (WE ARE ST.MAARTEN ST.MARTIN) and saw part of her immense collection of postcards from the island she now calls home, I spent more than an hour scouring the collection.  Just so much to see of the history of the island through a post card collection.   Loved the images on the post cards, so I emailed her asking if she would mind if I share some of them on my blog.  As you see below, she didn't mind at all.  Check out Sint Maarten, her home, and the second home of Carol and myself.  If you care to see more, pull up the Facebook page above.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Passanggrahan Guest House, 1968

The beach at Le Galion

Grand Case pier and Grand Case Beach Club

Salt pans in the Great Salt Pond 

Market at Marigot

Front Street, Philipsburg